“Is This Easy?”

Like you, when it comes to certain things, my lizard brain tries to guide me towards the path of least resistance first.

For example, checking my emails is safe. I’ve done it thousands of times. Sure, it’s work that has to be done, but I already know how to do it. There is no risk there.*

Slightly more resistance, slightly less safety, is in sales. For example, making a cold sales call is more risky. The person on the other end of the line might reject me. Yet even this task, I’ve done hundreds of times, so it is no longer very scary to me. It’s only slightly more risky than the checking emails.

Doing a brand new project, however, one that I’ve never done before, one that might not work, and that I’m not even sure how long it will really take, that one, that’s a big unknown. Accordingly, my brain will push me to dive into anything else that it’s more familiar with first, instead of the big uknown.

All of this is normal.

A few things to note:

The ‘big unknown’ is usually the one that can create the most value.

Pausing to ask yourself before you begin anything, “Is this easy?” helps. Your lizard brain has a trick. It tricks you into diving right into the easy work with little to no pause. Once you’re in, you feel safe, and, you’re unlikely to come back out.

If it’s easy, you can probably do it later.

*There are some times when a safe, easy task becomes risky. Have you ever not wanted to check your email? I’m guessing that’s most likely because you’re afraid to see a response to something risky that you sent out in the first place.